Pleasure Bound by Opal Carew Page B

about three months before anyone realized he had no home.”
    Her heart clenched at the thought of young Zeke, only twelve years old, wandering around without a home, without anyone to look out for him or take care of him.
    “So these people he was living with when you moved there, they adopted him?” she asked.
    “No, they were his foster parents. Then things changed and for some reason, they couldn’t keep taking care of him, so he moved in with another family. Things weren’t so great for him there. The old man beat him up a lot and every time he did, Zeke took off. He bounced from home to home for quite a while, with no consistency, no … love.”
    Zeke’s story broke Marie’s heart.
    “Finally,” Ty continued, “when Zeke was seventeen, childhood services put him in a group home. Zeke started hanging out with members of a local gang.” Ty stared into his coffee mug, swirling it around. “I could see he was heading for big trouble. We were still friends and I told him I wouldn’t have any part of a gang, but that we could be our own gang of two.”
    “You basically made him choose between the gang and you?”
    Ty shrugged. “It was the only way. What he really needed was a sense of belonging. A family, of sorts, that would look out for him. I convinced him we were tough enough to make it without them. That’s when we got the matching tattoos.” He smiled wistfully. “My parents nearly killed me over that.”
    By the look of affection in his eyes, she knew he meant they’d shown typical parental concern. He set down his mug on the table.
    “Did they try to stop you from being friends with Zeke?” she asked.
    Ty shrugged. “They were worried, but they could tell Zeke was basically a good kid in a bad situation. They believed, like I did, that he just needed a little friendship and support.”
    “And you gave him that.” Her heart swelled at Ty’s compassion and loyalty to his friend. “How long did you remain friends?”
    “Until about five years ago.”
    Her eyebrows arched upward. She knew Ty had gone to college and studied computer science—he now worked as a software architect at a major high-tech company—so she had assumed that their friendship had waned when Ty left for school. Of course, that didn’t explain the animosity Ty held for Zeke.
    “So what happened?”
    Ty’s jaw clenched and his eyes turned hard.
    She rested her hand on his. “I’d really like to know.”
    His lips compressed into a tight line, but he nodded.
    “I was dating this girl a while back … her name was Ashley. Very sexy. Zeke found her attractive.” He took a sip of his coffee, then pushed his mug aside. “Ashley and I had been dating for a couple of months and … she was pretty adventurous. She knew Zeke and I were good friends, and … she told me she’d had this fantasy for a long time. To have a threesome with two men. She wondered if … Zeke might join us sometime and help fulfill that fantasy.”
    Marie felt her cheeks flush a little. Zeke had returned the favor, having invited Ty to join them. She felt sure Zeke hadn’t intended this to be a reversal of that earlier incident, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit strange about the whole thing. Of course, in this case, Zeke had merely shared his girlfriend—her—with Ty, while not actually participating in the sharing. Was that his way of making sure it didn’t get weird?
    “So the three of you … did it?” She sipped her coffee, trying to appear nonchalant.
    “Yeah. And Ashley loved it. So much so, that a few days later I caught her draped all over Zeke, practically sucking his face off.”
    “Are you saying Zeke stole your girlfriend?”
    “He said he didn’t, but the evidence was right in front of me. Ashley broke up with me right after that.”
    Marie decided not to ask if this Ashley woman had started dating Zeke afterward. Better not to fan the flames.
    “You didn’t believe Zeke? Even though you were such good